A game of two centre halves

Bolton Wanderers 1 Birmingham City 1

IF SATURDAY EVENING’S CONTEST AT the Reebok Stadium was an audition to see which bright Barclays Premiership manager might provide a future England coach, then the winner would have to be both of them: Sam Allardyce in the first half, Steve Bruce in the second. Birmingham City were as bad in the first half as they were good in the second; Bolton Wanderers as dominant before the interval as they were docile afterwards. In this week of all weeks, you might even say this was a game of two halves, Brian.

These two former centre halves have transformed unfashionable clubs into stable Premiership forces and, while the nature of the modern game precludes the possibility of either winning the title as Brian Clough did with